There was an interconnected colony of at least twenty spiders in a patch of Coyote Brush. The attached photos are not all of one spider but include several individuals from the same colony.

M. spinipes is one of the very few semi-colonial spiders in the US. Each individual builds its own orb web with a retreat made of leaves and silk suspended inside a surrounding tangle web. A line connects the retreat to the center of the orb while the tangle webs of the different spiders are interconnected.